thanks for starting your weekend with us. i'm chris gordon. i'm angie goff. welcome to news for today on this saturday, february 4th. we're following breaking news. police of descended on d.c. occupy camp ordering them to break down their tents and other structures. derek, what's the scene now? >> reporter: it was relatively calm until 20 minutes ago when mounted police officers moved in. they came from north 15th street in the area of lafayette park

and surrounded the central part of the park. if you take a look out there. there are police officers in riot gear. what's happening now is the protesters had barricaded themselves around the tent of dreams, that is the mcpherson statute at the center of the park. they are now surrounded by mounted police and police in riot gear. it sounds like they are taking down some of the impromptu barricades set up by the demonstrators. there had been rumors and general sense something would happen today. they thought it would happen a lot earlier. about 25 minutes ago, we did have police move into the park. police have set up roadblocks in the area around kay street, 15th street, surrounding the roadblock today. overhead, we had a helicopter illuminating the park from above. it was obvious something was going on. kind of sense of controlled bedlam among the protesters.

they had worked out a plan once this happened. we spoke to a protester a veteran of the occupy wall street movement and talk about what it was like in zuccotti park. >> i seen a big nypd s.w.a.t. bus stop at the corner and turn the lights on. my mouth was telling everybody, get up, this may be it. there was more and more cop cars coming. what they also did, they cut off the pay phones, they cut off the cell phones and the news chopper in the air during that time, they told them to get out so they can do the raid, whatever happens in the park, it won't be televised. >> reporter: we spoke to him a lot earlier when this happened. essentially the same thing happened here. there is some action going on as we speak. >> we want to mention the u.s.

park police here in d.c. have been a lot more measured necessarily than the nypd, when they cleared out occupy wall street. what we want you to do is set this thing -- we understand there was helicopter above, mounted police, barricade situation. what are the demands that us park police are making? >> reporter: essentially all they told us was to get out of the perimeter they established with the horses. they told us to get on the other side of the grassy area in the center of the park. at that point, that's when things started to solidify, line started to be formed and that's pretty much where we are now. >> what demands are they making of occupy d.c.? take down the tents, don't sleep in the tents, get out of the park? >> reporter: we heard no demands of anything. really, a matter of a presence that descended upon the park relati relatively quickly. there's been no announcement of

a bullhorn. i see a forklift. perhaps that is to remove some items. as we understand, the court ruling said the police would have to give notice to the protesters they planned to clear the park and give the protesters time to respond, whether that meant in the form of court filings going back and forth or verbal conversations, we don't know. it's too early for there to have been any court filings unless there's been something going on overnight. we don't know if this is a sweep of the park or show of presence or what but it's unfolding as we speak. >> you mentioned the flashing lights behind you, forklift moving in. any sign of road closures for those heading in this morning? >> reporter: yeah. kay street. there are police road blocks on kay street down to 14th, from where i can see, probably up to 16th or 17th. if you plan to be moving east and west across the city, you might want to avoid the kay

street area, generally the area around mcpherson square. >> derrick ward, thank you. protesters being told to take down their tents and structures and helicopter hovering above and forklift moving in as they start to clear out the scene. >> derrick will stay there and monitor the situation. stay tuned? stay tuned as well for continuing coverage of this store on nbcwashington.com. following our handle at twitter.com/nbc washington. >> do we have a weather event? >> i have another little squirmish coming our way from mother nature. not a big event and overnight tonight, we may be able to mix a few snow drops in with the raindrops. that is news. clouds are racing in very quickly. we have quite a few dry hours in

front of us. by the time the sun is going down this evening. that's when the drops will move in and we have a chance to mix in snow drops. right now, all is quiet. 38 in downtown washington. 31 degrees in reston. 28 in manassas. 37 in annapolis. st. mary's county, sullivan's island in the upper 30s. below freezing out west towards cumberland. on our radar, zip going on just yet. raindrops not too far away and snow drops the northern half of ohio. it is cold out there. not too far away. we will watch it moving our direction. temperatures climbing generally in the mid and upper 40s. we'll stay below 50 degrees with clouds coming in. 70% chance you get rained on today and 80% chance first thing

tomorrow morning. the high in the 40s. most of your weekend will be on the cloudy side and most wetness sundown tonight to lunch-time tomorrow. not looking for a big accumulation. might be able to get an inch in northern maryland and west virginia j about an inch. we'll talk about that. >> today, mitt romney hopes to solidify his position as front-runner as nevada republicans kawasaki to make their choice for the gop nominee. if the latest polls are any indication, romney will have another big day after a convincing win in florida earlier this week. the former governor has a 20 point lead over rival newt gingrich over likely caucus goers in the latest las vegas journal news poll. santorum and paul are in distant third and fourth place. romney spent yesterday courting

business owners at a supply company. he made president obama his primary target during that visit. he criticized obama's handling of the recovery saying it's taken longer than it should have because of white house policies. he said as president, he would be a friend of employers and entrepreneurs. meanwhile, newt gingrich has made the gop front-runner his target. the former speaker met with a few hundred voters at a country western bar in las vegas and devideded romney, calling him obama-like. gingrich also seized on romney's comment he isn't very concerned about the very poor. gingrich said it was a poor choice of words for a very wealthy man and example of what republicans don't want for a candidate. thanks, chris. the u.n. security council is expected to meet today to vote on a resolution calling for syrian president bashir al assad

to resign. they killed 200 people yesterday in the city and they injured hundreds more. the u.n. estimates more than 5,000 people were killed in the last year. in what protesters say is concentrated assault on demonstrators. meanwhile, dozens of syrian americans gather outside the syrian embassy on wyoming avenue northwest last night to show their support for protesters. they denounced president bashir al assad saying what he's doing to his citizens is considered genocide. there are protests going on at syrian embassies around the world. the army intelligence analyst accused of the biggest classified leak in u.s. history will now face a court-martial. the commander of the district of washington handed it down against bradley manning last night.

he is accused of giving wick qui leaks more than 7,000 classified documents from the wars in afghanistan and iraq. he faces 22 counts including aiding the enemy. the could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted. a traffic alert for drivers. east and westbound lanes at leastburg pike will be closed from 7:00 in the morning to 2:00 in the afternoon. crews will be working on installing a new bridge ramp. all beltway ramps will be opened. it's expected to be finished late this year. time now, 10 minutes after the 6:00 hour. a reversal of fortunes as the susan g. komen foundation decides to continue funding planned parenthood and the boost they're receiving from this week's controversy. in case you haven't heard, there's a pretty important football game being played this

morning, sunshine, it's time to bring it. [ gargling ] oo-ay-ow. savings. savings. savings? progressive was the first to offer online quoting. you can do better. first to show comparison rates. ding! the "name your price" tool. oh! gosh, don't mind if i do. who was the first to offer pet injury coverage? we were. and when did you know you wanted to sell insurance? i said i wouldn't cry. um... whee! it's flo time. now, that's progressive. call or click today.

welcome back. the time now is 6:13. we're following breaking news out of d.c. right now. police have descended upon the occupy d.c. movement at mcpherson square and that's where we finder rick ward with the latest. they're bringing in a fork lift. what is the latest? >> reporter: we have a better sense what police are trying to do. you see the lights where the people are gathered. they set up barricades, iron-like fences around the center of the park. park police officers are disassembling what the occupy movement calls the tale of dreams. the black tarp is completely draped over the statute of general mcpherson and at the base of the pedestal. they're taking that down now and removing wooden pallets and

other things assembled there. there doesn't seem to be an effort at this point to remove any tents or protesters from the outer ring or outer part of the park, the grassy area around the center. there focusing all attention to the center. we haven't heard any demands other than clear that central area. at this point, it would appear the goal of what we did see this morning is to clear that center of the park and clear that statute of the tarp. as you can see, the tarp is pretty much completely gone. there might have been some people there meditating, as they say because of the legal ban on actually sleeping or camping on the park. the sounds you see in the background, heavy machinery. some of the wood or other things taken away from that statute area again. no apparent effort to clear the complete park, just focusing on the center statute. >> have you had an opportunity to talk with any officials about

what their next move may be? perhaps this is the first set on many to come later today. >> reporter: could you repeat that? >> sure. i was wondering if you have spoken with any other officials about the next step after they remove the so-called tent of dreams after they remove the tents later today? >> reporter: we haven't heard any word. the barricade fences can be quickly taken down. they'll maintain the presence with the mounted police farming around the center of the park. at this point, apparently they have a goal in mind, they just haven't made it public to us at this point. >> we are tweeting as well as on the air here at "news4 today." we are also reading tweets and getting information u.s. park police as well as homeland security may be there. a fire hose has been unrolled, a fire hose. >> reporter: i haven't seen a fire hose or fire equipment at this point.

i will venture over to the other side of the park. as for homeland security, they're a presence in d.c. all the time, the trucks with the blue stripe down that designates them from the metropolitan police and park police and other jurisdictions around here. from what we've seen, most of the presence around the park, most of the officers making up the contingent inside the park are the park police officers. >> so far, no confrontations whatsoever? >> reporter: verbal confrontati confrontations, there may have been pushing and shoving where police of set up the barricades. nothing extremely violent, just rowdy. >> police usually have dialogue and usually warn protesters what they're going to do. d.c. police have done this, park police have done this. any of that today? have they indicated what they

want the protesters to do or police intend to do? >> reporter: again, no such dialogue we have seen. there was a contingent of police officers who were obviously ranking officers, the white shirts and blue shirts as they are generally known and then the others in the actual riot gear. usually, when there's an announcement like that, area like this with this many people around, someone uses a bullhorn, we haven't seen that. whether there's one-on-one across the barricade, whoever is the designated point person for the occupation and police department, we don't know. we haven't seen that. there's been no official notification of any kind made over a bullhorn or anything like that, other than to clear that central area of the park. >> we know you spoke with some of the occupy protesters a little early on. what are they saying if the next move is to come in and take down the tents? are they saying they're willing to go peacefully.

we did see some people holding up peace signs, a lot of people taking cell phone pictures and pictures with the cell phones? what's the picture you're getting? >> reporter: like any movement with four or five people, you will have different motivations and ideologies and different decisions on the actions they take. we have talked to folks who said they plan to move when told to move. others said they will stand fast. since there has not been camping allowed in the park, we are seeing earlier when the police move in, people converge on it, converging elsewhere from where they went to sleep. we haven't heard and we don't know if there is a consensus about what the next step will be if there is a move to clear the park. generally, the way the occupation works, they get together and have a caucus and decide as a group if that's at all possible. they decide as a group what action to take, what their reaction to some action will be.

i don't know if that's actually happened. it was all about mobilizing and surrounding themselves and getting theirselves around the center of the park pretty much now belongs to the u.s. park police. >> we can believe with police presence liq this, traffic is impacted. i know it's early saturday morning and it's washington. people are still driving around. >> reporter: it's not as busy as the middle of the week but business going on. kay street and 15th street and 16th street passable and 14th street not 13th, you probably can but kay street in the area of mcpherson square is closed to traffic in both directions as is 15 at&t stre 15th street, another block from there. >> thank you, derrick. he will stay there all morning on top of this breaking news. >> we're continuing to follow

two stories. the weather event coming our way is the other one. >> don't get your hopes up. this is not a winter we get a rot of sn rot -- lot of snow. >> no snow angels. >> we will talk about your weekend forecast coming up in a couple minutes. brad and jill in accounting? crazy! coffee and chocolate. mocha. ooh! who's mocha? for the perfect blend of coffee and chocolate, try a mocha coffee or latte today. texting...blogging... all this technology, but you're still banking like pilgrims! get high yield free checking at capital one bank. why earn bupkis, when your checking could earn five times the national average!! and free atms anywhere. five times the national average!!! that's new school banking.

sign up for high yield free checking at a capital one bank. what's in your wallet? somebody help me down.

i'm drinkin' dunkin'. definitely dunkin'. you know, i need to get that jolt in the morning, but i want something good to do that. you can't mistake the flavor. i run on dunkin'. tell us what you're drinkin' for a chance to be famous. america runs on dunkin' coffee.

welcome back, everybody. i'm chuck bell, your meteorologist. the storm is finally here and the mention of rain and maybe even a couple of snowflakes. still dark early outside but rain sneaking in quickly. you will need your umbrellas before the day is through. winds are fairly light out of the southwest at only 6 miles an hour. dew point low 30s, humiditying my at 83%. temperatures around the rest of the area across much of fairfax county and prince williams. manassas, 32. 31 in waldorf. a little bit colder as you get into far northern maryland and southern pennsylvania where most locations are just below the freezing mark.

your saturday planner, temperatures won't budge by much. 42 this morning. mid to upper 40s today. with thickening clouds and chances for rain in the forecast as we head to later in the afternoon. a couple light returns in southern pennsylvania, most not making it to the ground just yet. plenty of moisture in our direction. blizzard warnings in parts of iowa and kansas and nebraska and isolated severe thunderstorms from memphis, tennessee towards new orleans. that whole push of moisture is coming in our direction. there's just enough cold air right on the northern periphery of the storm to make it change from rain to snow. this snow line is drifting during the course of the overnight hours tonight. this is the winter we aren't able to get a sustained amount of moisture. if we're going to get any snow, it's probably less than an inch

across northern maryland. we start off with a smidgen of sunshine. by the time we get to tomorrow, things are clearing out as it drifts to the south. on our future weather up close and personal. stopped at 3:00 this afternoon, the time the first drops are sneaking into the area. sundown, 8:00 and 9:00 this evening. raindrops switching over midnight tonight and sunrise tomorrow morning. the amount of precipitation we will get will be extremely light. don't count on a lot. clouds thickening today, highs upper 40s to low 50s. if we get any trouble, late tonight and early tomorrow morning. don't count on a lot of snow. in west virginia and northern maryland might get an inch or so out of this. that's about it. no real sustained stretch of

cold air coming our way. even if we can get a couple snowflakes today, we will stay well above freezing tomorrow and whatever little bit we can get is tomorrow. >> i know. to your display. >> some of us like snow. >> they are dismantling right now the tarp of dreams. we will have a live report with derrick ward. [music playing]

confidence. available in color. depend® for women is now peach. looks and fits like underwear. same great protection. depend®. good morning. great day.

[music playing] confidence. available in color. depend® for women is now peach. looks and fits like underwear. same great protection. depend®. good morning. great day.

welcome to news for today. i'm angie goff. >> i'm chris gordon. we want to get the breaking news out of mcpherson square, where it appears police are about to evict protesters. derrick ward is there live. >> reporter: it's unclear as i said. things ramped up about an hour ago and they have plateau'd. what happened is park police set up a perimeter in the center of the park around the statute of mcpherson. they put up iron barricade fences there and started to take some of the things away from the statutes. first, they were going to take over the tarp of the statute of mcpherson, dubbed the tent of dreams. the tarp remains but sort of wrapped around the pedestal now and there's one protester perched atop the statute sort of

shouting things down to others in the group. they seemed to have reached some consensus things will pretty much, at least for the next few minutes, we don't know for sure, stay as they are, with protesters outside the barricade and park police inside facing out. the group of mounted park police officers that were there have sort of moved back a bit, spreading themselves out a little bit more. the presence remains as does the protesters. there doesn't seem to be any effort to completely clear the park and tent of things out here. they have been sanctioned by the court as legal as long as they weren't seen as encampments. with the camp being paraphernalia, sleeping blankets, things like that gone, there would have to be notice given before these things essentially called a vigil are moved and there would have to be time, according to the judge's

order, there would have to be time for protesters to respond. there hasn't been any kind of back and forth like that, that we can see. and the action taken today, clearing that statute, the focal point, the reason this park is here, a matter of clearing the area generally. it hasn't been completely cleared. even in the darkness, the tarp remains around the pedestal of the statute. police have surrounded that and there is someone atop the statute pretty much underneath the horse there. that's where things are. i don't know if it's tense enough to call it a standoff. there is definitely a line now, center of the park belonging to the police and the rest of the park belonging to the occupy movement. >> what are you seeing as to officers and propertitesters? is there any type of negotiating going on as to when to take these tents down?

>> reporter: that we scan see, there hasn't. usually officers do not converse back and forth. there's a lot of one-way conversation from protesters but no response from the officers generally. they are following their commands and i their protocols, that is something they frown upon. they want to maintain their presence as a police presence. no official negotiations we have seen between ranking officers and whoever may be the actual leaders of the movement. >> we want to recap what we know, we can confirm at this point, the tarp that had been around or atop of the mcpherson square statute has been taken down but somewhere near the base. we have seen tweets where the tarp will be allowed to be kept by protesters but they're talking about removing it from the park and some protesters are talking about asking if they can put it in the smithsonian at the

national history museum. also, police appear to be removing camping gear from tents. at this point, we cannot say eviction. it does not appear there is a move to evict the occupy d.c. at mcpherson square. >> reporter: what's happening now, they're actually taking the tarp down. what's going to happen to it after that remains to be seen but the tarp is definitely coming down from the statute. the police remain surrounding the statute. as you can see, some of the protesters are coffeed up now. >> they seem a little fired up behind you. >> reporter: i'm sorry. what did you say? >> they seem a little fired up there. we're starting to see what you're saying about the one-way conversation. what we'll do, we'll check back in with you a little later as you stay on top of this breaking news. if you have any develops, let us know as well. >> reporter: will do.

we'll keep you posted. >> derrick ward reporting live. >> there are tweets that the d.c. police and the u.s. park police in that area may leave and that this was kind of just some kind of an enforcement movement. so we want to see. if they de-escalate. >> deescalate. >> we don't want to make more of it than it is and we want to make sure the information is soli solid. >> derrick mentioned he has not seen any talks between protesters and officials as far as removing the tents themselves. the big tent of dreams definitely was coming down. >> we'll check back live with derri derrick, live on mcpherson square. d.c. police have released surveillance video. >> they have, in talking to a man seen walking away from a scene where a transgendered person was murdered.

this video was taken 8:30 thursday night, shows a man walking calmly across east c capitol street, heading away from the bus stop where 23-year-old jerome parker jones had just been stabbed to death. they said a motive has not been established but want to talk to the man in the video. any witnesses could be eligible for a $25,000 reward. a man in a car accident will spend the next 25 years in prison. carlos was in the courtroom. he was drunk when he crashed into another car killing sister denise and injuring two other nuns. is the is the third drunk driving offense. during the sentencing, he said he's extremely sorry for the pain he's caused and ready to receive his punishment. >> i'm extremely sorry for the destruction and harm i put the sisters and their families through. i feel horrible for what i have done.

i take full responsibility for my actions and i'm willing to accept my penalty. >> the judge actually had a longer sentence in mind but lowered it after hearing montano's statement. an 84-year-old woman is recovering after being found beaten and bloodied inside her apartment in maryland. she opened the door to a man wednesday to a man she thought was her neighbor. he forced his way inside, beat her and took belongings. she was found a day later lying on the floor unable to move after a neighbor noticed her door was open. no arrests have been made. a former d.c. police sergeant will spend 18 months behind bars for scamming an 85-year-old woman she was ass n assigned to help. >> aiesha hackky was sentenced yesterday. she met the victim in dead of 2010 during a prod investigation. instead of helping her, police said hack ly forged her signatue

and took more than 40 grand from her bank account. she pleaded guilty last august and since paid full restitution. when we return, the very latest on breaking news at

the eyes of the sports world are on indianapolis this weekend. >> super bowl xxxvi is about 36 hours away. here's a look at lucas oil stadium where giant and patriots will square off. with hundreds of thousands of people packing this usually quiet city, security is unusually tight. the latest from indianapolis. >> reporter: thousands crowded downtown indianapolis last night for one of the city's free super bowl concerts, many unaware they're on camera, high-tech cameras detect iing images of crimes before they happened. >> if somebody put something down and walked away from it. >> officials tell us security is

almost as tight as at the white house. everything in and out checked for explosives. a 30 mile no-fly zone over the city tomorrow. also, fans can focus on fun, which by the way, is not cheap. game tickets are going for $2,000 and up, plus transportation, food, hotels. >> swipe it and forget it. >> you're probably looking at 3 to 3500 bucks. >> reporter: we found fans trying to enjoy the super bowl without the super price. snow my nephew lives up in zionsville. we'll be staying there. john was nice enough to drive his car. we're here on the cheap. >> reporter:or most who will never make it to the game, the host committee provided affordable entertainment like the popular $10 zip line. >> this has become the people's or midwestern people's super bowl. because of that, we wanted a rallying point and place for them to congregate.

>> reporter: souvenirs can break your budget. look at these prices. this guy says he doesn't care what he spends. >> i'm restocking my entire wardrobe. >> reporter: tracie potts, indianapolis. >> while it is a huge place for counterfeiters as well, police officials have seized more than $5 million worth of fake super bowl merchandise. fairfax county police are cracking down this weekend on drunk drivers and plan to increase patrols with any increased number of super bowl parties going on. it seems to be successful. police did the same thing last year busting 39 people for drunk driving. with so many super bowl parties this weekend, a local anti-drunk driving group is urging everyone to be safe. they have safe celebrating tips for people to help enjoy super bowl sunday. use a designated driver. if you don't have one, call a cab or use public

transportation. close the bar at house parties at least an hour before the party is over and never allow someone who's been drinking recently or heavily to get behind the wheel. >> and talking about the weather, things could get interesting. is the our second big story of the morning. >> you know, as i've been talking about jokingly, yes, we have a chance for snow in the forecast. if you've been around here all winter, it can be so scary. we've barely had cold air.

-dad, why are you getting that? -that's my cereal. is there a prize in there? oh, there's a prize, all right. is it a robot? no. is it a jet plane? nope. is it a dinosaur?] [ male announcer ] inside every box of heart healthy cheerios are those great tasting little o's made from carefully selected oats that c help lower cholesterol. stickers? uh-uh. a superhero? ♪ kinda. [ male announcer ] and we think that's the best prize of all. ♪

after facing intense public scrutiny, the susan g. komen foundation reverses its decision and continues to help fund planned parenthood. they issued an apology yesterday. despite rumors it was politically motivated they were trying to move in the best interests. >> i hope we can get past the craziness the last few days and move to the komen mission of saving women's lives from breast

cancer. >> i'm relieved we can focus on women's health again. >> it revised its grant criteria to only exclude groups under criminal investigation. planned parenthood benefitted in more ways than one from the transfe transfe controversy. they raised more than $3 million in contributions in the last three days. >> a lot of people will be driving to the super bowl party and the weather is a big factor. >> good news is any weather related slipperiness is a late tomorrow issue so as a result by the time you get ready to go to your super bowl parties tomorrow afternoon, things will be getting better. great news. there will be a chance after the sun goes down to switch some raindrops over to snowflakes and that might add up to an inch in

western maryland and mountains of north virginia. if you have errand to run, the front half of your weekend is looking pretty good. we do have a veil of high clouds overhead and will see one or two shriver slivers of sunshine. 38 degrees at the airport only 6 miles an hour wind. and 32 in reston and 28 degrees in manassas. 32 for gaithersburg and rockport. your saturday planner, clouds continue to thicken through the course of the day. temperatures mid and upper 40s for a brief time and cooling down. precipitation begins just about the time the sun goes down. radar showing not much going down. southern pennsylvania not quite reaching the ground just yet. a lot of moisture to the west. blizzard in parts of iowa and

nebraska. strong thunderstorms again in parts of tennessee, alabama and mississippi. for us, there's enough cold air on the northern edge of the system where we will see a little bit of change over from rain to snow. here we are, by 6:00 this evening. rain breaking out in washington, along the mason dixon line, step forward to midnight, notice the moisture to the south. as the moisture goes south pushed down by colder air, we have an opportunity to mix snowflakes in and might be enough to whiten the ground in northern west virginia. tomorrow, a little bit of sunshine. here we are, up close and personal here, forget about the word, "sunny" but rain showers sneaking in, 3:00, 4:00 this afternoon and a rain mix at 5:00 in northern maryland and as the moisture slips to the south, the

best chance for a couple of snowflakes in the washington area about 8:00 or 9:00 tomorrow morning. temperatures in the upper 40s to near 50. the all important 7-day forecast. pretty good chance you will get wet tonight and today and early tomorrow. anything tomorrow will be early enough, by the time you're headed off to your super bowl party, the game doesn't kick off until 6:25 tomorrow evening and everything will be nice and quiet. >> it will be right here on nbc4. >> i've heard that. something about that. >> something about that being good times. when we return the latest on breaking news out of the occupy d.c. encampment, police are moving in. police have been going through tents. there may be a negotiated settlement as their tent of dreams, the occupier's tent of dreams

welcome back. we're following breaking news in washington square. derrick ward is there and he says police are trying to negotiate a possible deal.

>> reporter: what we're seeing is establishment of perimeters. there was an inner perimeter, fencing exactly like this around the mcpherson statute. this just went up in the last couple of minutes around the park itself. there is an opening there, egress and access to the park is still available. you can still go in and out. what this is remains to be seen. direct your attention farther east on k street. you can see the police presence has grown steadily since an hour, hour and a half ago, that is when the police on horseback moved into the park and set up the inner perimeter. there's been no effort we can see to clear these tents or signs from the park or remove any from the park. essentially, what it is now is a setting up of perimeter. this person is someone i know, i've just seen a legal observer come here. folks, attorneys and lawyers

generally attend these things to monitor what goes on, the interaction between authorities to see everything is legal and document anything that may be less than legal. again, we haven't seen violent confrontations, a lot of verbal confrontations, challenges across the barricades. no official announcement for what any intent is for the setting up of these perimeters. we did see some folks coming by in not necessarily full fledge hazmat suits but the kind of gear you expect to see people use when there is a cleanup of sorts to be done. that's essentially what they've done, taken the wooden pallets and metal things protesters set up around the statute. the tarp has been taken down and it has been taken down by protesters and some consensus they would give that and remove

that. police remain in the center of the park and a wider perimeter set up around that. if you're traveling today, you might want to avoid k street, west of 14th and north of, looks like i i street. it's not a hard perimeter people can go as they please and around the perimeter, access is more limited. no apparent effort to clear the park completely at this point. >> derrick ward reporting live, going to be monitoring the decisi decision -- situation all morning live. we are following it live on nbcwashington.com and you con follow our twitter feed and we will cut in between now and our 9:00 a.m. show where we will have more live coverage on the breaking news story and what's

going on with the weather. people want to know with the super bowl upon us. >> nothing major. rain and snowflakes early tomorrow morning. most if any problems, most will be done by 9:00, 10:00 sunday morning. >> everybody is focused on the super bowl. we will quickly do unscientific picks. i come from central new york, i will say the giants. >> i'm going new england. i think it's hard to stop brady. i'm worried a little about their defense but i think he will pull through. >> i was born in massachusetts so i am going for the patriots and will go 31-24 pate tri optt. are either of you bold enough to put a high score? >> i think it is going to be high scores, 27-24. >> i'm stealing that from brett, the producer. he knows his football. >> it's a three-point spread with the las vegas experts.

that's a pretty good score. >> i covered the last major super bowl, the redskins super bowl twenty years ago and i ran into bill parcells at breakfast. i said, can i ask you a question. he was with the giant at the time and just left the giants. i said, who are you picking? >> redskins because they're nfc east. if you're a redskins fan, maybe you pick giants because it's nfc east. >> we have kelly there and vans live and doing coverage all night long. following that, don't forget "the voice" is on. >> big fan of singing competition, that's me. >> i will be back and hosting a live chat and recapping all the awesome super bowl commercials. >> and the matthew brodrick one. >> it has a lot of hype already. >> that's it for this